Meet Harold Miller, candidate for mayor

A San Francisco mayoral race wouldn’t be a San Francisco mayoral race without a fringe candidate or seven. Witness Mayor Gavin Newsom’s challengers in 2007: a nudist, a showman named Chicken John and a homeless taxi driver named Grasshopper.

Well, the 2011 race to replace Newsom is no different. Sure, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Supervisor Bevan Dufty and venture capitalist Joanna Rees have thrown their hats in the ring. But so too have underdogs, including Harold Miller.

The 49-year-old Big Dog taxi driver lives alone in the Sunnydale projects in Visitacion Valley where he is the president of the tenants’ association. He’s always been a driver of some sort, including for UPS trucks, buses and limos. He decided to run for mayor — and has already filed the necessary paperwork to do so — after learning a couple of years ago that Newsom wanted to auction off taxi medallions.

He wants to reform the cab system, opposes the sit/lie ban and supports same-sex marriage and neighborhood schools. OK, that all sounds reasonable enough. Here’s where it gets fun, and we’ll quote directly from www.haroldmiller4mayor.com.

“As San Francisco mayor candidate I have been in talks with the N.F.L. about starting a new San Francisco 49er team and the name of the team will be the “San Francisco 1849ers” and the city will own the team and the franchises, and when ever I get Jerry Rice’s phone number I will be giving him a call and all of the so-called retired 49ers will get back their jobs.”

Now, he says Rice has signed on as coach of the new team. Uh huh. And he said the city can finance a new football team “like Newsom used city money to buy Treasure Island” and that it will reap so much dough for the city, we won’t have to worry about pension reform. Miller told us that if the election was held today, he’s pretty sure he would win, but that politics is meaner and dirtier than he thought.

“If they can’t get at your flyers that hang in your windows, they throw eggs at the window,” he said, adding he feels for gubernatorial candiate Meg Whitman and the political attacks she’s enduring. “It’s like, ‘Welcome to my neighborhood, lady.'”